A feudal kingdom in western Hârn, Rethem was founded in 635 by Arlun The Barbarian and is now ruled by King Chafin III from his seat in Shostim. Rethem has a violent history and is Hârn’s most unstable, treacherous, and dangerous state. Only lip service is paid to the institutions of fealty and honor, for Rethemi politics are a maelstrom of intrigue and assassination. The largest settlement is Golotha, which is nominally a chartered freetown but in reality is an urban blight ruled by a theocratic and repressive council.

Rethemi kings, plagued with chronic disunity that sometimes verged on anarchy, have never enjoyed popular support. In the first four years of Chafin III first reign, the new king has managed by various means to reaffirm the fealty of the earls of Ithiko and Techen, as well as the orders of the Warriors of Mameka, Companions of Roving Doom, and Red Shadows of Herpa. The powerful and rebellious Earl of Tormau has his own ambitions, but many believe that Chafin III, a man of considerable ambition and competence, will, if he lives long enough, unite Rethem under his iron fist and redress the wrongs suffered at the hands of hated Kanday.